City Bridge Foundation’s latest Spotlight Talk focussed on AI (artificial intelligence). On this page we’re sharing the useful AI resources which we discussed during the session.
Our Spotlight Talk on Approaching AI took place on Wednesday, 7 May 2025. We were joined by Jonathan Waddingham from Lightful, Erica Thornton from Breck Foundation, Geraud de Ville de Goyet from Barking and Dagenham Giving, and Joey Ceunen from Carefree.
The purpose of our Spotlight Talks is to give a platform to some of the organisations we fund, providing an opportunity for experts to speak about their sector, expertise and funded work, as well as supporting other organisations with challenges they are facing.
Spotlight Talks are free and are typically open to the wider charitable sector.
Jonathan shared a brief presentation on how AI works. He looked at the ethical and environmental considerations, and shared resources to get started using AI. The panellists shared their motivations for using AI, how it’s supporting their work and how they have overcame AI-related challenges.
We have shared a recording of the session on our YouTube channel. We had a slight technical glitch with the recording so this begins at 15 minutes into the session, but there is still lots of useful info.
Lightful’s Prompt Tips Checklist will support you with how to ask ChatGPT questions and get the best outputs
Getting Started With AI: a self-serve course by CAST. Every week for seven weeks, you’ll receive an email with a guided activity, designed to help you comfortably familiarise yourself with AI — and discover the ways in which it can help make your work life easier. Sign up for the free AI self-serve course here.
CAST also have a number of free resources and blog posts here — AI resources
AI policy template — This toolkit has been designed by Lightful to help you develop an AI policy for your organisation.
The 50 Best AI Tools in 2025 (Tried & Tested) — this blog post on Sythesia breaks down recommendations for the different uses you might want AI for.
Useful context for how charity’s use of AI is evolving — Early insights from the 2025 Charity Digital Skills Report survey
A blog post from Benedict Evans comparing the AI revolution with other past technological revolutions – Working with AI
CAST webinar — Beyond the AI hype: Where’s the social sector at in 2025? The associated slide deck with key takeaways and shared resources can be seen here: Beyond the AI Hype: Where’s the social sector at in 2025 slidedeck
Reason Digital’s free webinar on the ethical uses of AI (Artificial Intelligence) hosted by co-founder Matt Haworth — Ethical Uses of AI for Charities (Webinar) | Reason Digital
The Complete AI Guide: Learn ChatGPT, Generative AI & More – online course mentioned during the session. Cost at time of sharing £54.99. Described as “quite long (30+ hours) so not for the faint hearted but it’s useful to navigate between chapters and pick and choose what is most relevant.”
The same supplier, Udemy, also has a number of online courses on ethics.
How to create a custom GPT – shared on OpenAI.
AI automation platforms like Mindpal and Relay are starting to become very powerful.
Also on the more advanced side, this is a great podcast for learning how to make the most of all the latest tools.
